Clovis Oncology Inc (NASDAQ:CLVS) announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Rubraca (rucaparib) tablets as monotherapy for the treatment of patients with deleterious BRCA mutation (germline and/or somatic) associated advanced ovarian cancer, who have been treated with two or more chemotherapies, and selected for therapy based on an FDA-approved companion diagnostic for Rubraca.

Rubraca’s indication is approved under the FDA’s accelerated approval program, and is based on objective response rate and duration of response results from two multicenter, single-arm, open-label clinical trials, Study 10 and ARIEL2 Parts 1 and 2. Continued approval for this indication may be contingent upon verification and description of clinical benefit in confirmatory trials. The ARIEL3 maintenance confirmatory study has completed enrollment and the ARIEL4 treatment confirmatory study is open for enrollment. Warning and precautions include Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS) and Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML).

“Recurrent ovarian cancer remains one of the most difficult cancers to treat and for so many years, medical advances in this space have been limited,” said Robert L. Coleman, MD, Professor & Deputy Chairman, Vice Chair, Clinical Research, Ann Rife Cox Chair in Gynecology, Department of Gynecologic Oncology and Reproductive Medicine at University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and one of the Principal Investigators in the ARIEL clinical trial program. “Today’s approval of Rubraca for the treatment of advanced ovarian cancer demonstrates the value of treatment with PARP inhibitors and represents an important advance for women diagnosed with either germline or somatic BRCA-mutated tumors who have been treated with two or more chemotherapies.”

“We believe that today’s approval of Rubraca provides an important new therapy for advanced ovarian cancer patients with a germline or somatic mutation of BRCA after two or more chemotherapies,” said Patrick J. Mahaffy, CEO and President of Clovis Oncology. “We look forward to launching Rubraca with the support of our established U.S. commercial and medical affairs organizations and bringing this much-needed precision medicine to women with advanced ovarian cancer as quickly as possible.”

“NOCC commends Clovis Oncology for its commitment to bringing a new treatment option to women living with ovarian cancer, the deadliest cancer of the female reproductive system. All too often, women are diagnosed when the disease is far advanced, leaving them with few viable treatment options,” said David Barley, Chief Executive Officer, National Ovarian Cancer Coalition. “The development and FDA approval of therapies for use in third-line is a promising step forward for the tens of thousands of women who will battle ovarian cancer in their lifetime.”

“Ovarian cancer is one of the most difficult cancers to detect. For this reason, most women who develop ovarian cancer are diagnosed with advanced disease,” said Sue Friedman, DVM, Executive Director of Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered. “There is a tremendous need for new ways to treat women with advanced ovarian cancer and ways to find those women who will respond to therapies such as PARP inhibitors. PARP inhibitors, like Rubraca, represent an exciting advancement for appropriate patients.”

The Rubraca NDA filing received Priority Review and was reviewed and approved under FDA’s Accelerated Approval program. These programs allow for earlier approval of drugs that treat serious conditions and that fill an unmet medical need. The application was based on objective response rate and duration of response results from two multicenter, single-arm, open-label clinical trials, Study 1 (Study 10, NCT01482715) and Study 2 (ARIEL2 Parts 1 and 2, NCT01891344), in women with advanced BRCA-mutant ovarian cancer who had progressed after two or more prior chemotherapies. All 106 patients received Rubraca orally 600 mg twice daily as monotherapy until disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Objective response rate (ORR) and duration of response (DOR) were assessed by the investigator and independent radiology review (IRR) according to Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) version 1.1.

The overall safety evaluation of Rubraca 600 mg twice daily as monotherapy is based on data from 377 patients with ovarian cancer treated in two open-label, single arm trials. The most common adverse reactions (≥ 20% of patients; Grade 1-4) were nausea, asthenia/fatigue, vomiting, anemia, constipation, dysgeusia, decreased appetite, diarrhea, abdominal pain, thrombocytopenia and dyspnea. The most common laboratory abnormalities (≥ 35% of patients; Grade 1-4) were increase in creatinine, increase in ALT, increase in AST, decrease in hemoglobin, decrease in lymphocytes, increase in cholesterol, decrease in platelets and decrease in absolute neutrophil count. (Original Source)

Shares of Clovis Oncology Inc are currently trading at $40.25, up $3.05 or +8.20%. CLVS has a 1-year high of $42.86 and a 1-year low of $11.57. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $34.23 and its 200-day moving average is $25.13.

On the ratings front, Clovis Oncology has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. In a report issued on November 7, Credit Suisse analyst Kennen MacKay reiterated a Buy rating on CLVS, with a price target of $41, which represents a potential upside of 11% from where the stock is currently trading. Separately, on November 3, J.P. Morgan’s Cory Kasimov reiterated a Hold rating on the stock and has a price target of $23.

According to TipRanks.com, which ranks over 7,500 financial analysts and bloggers to gauge the performance of their past recommendations, Kennen MacKay and Cory Kasimov have a yearly average return of 15.1% and a loss of -12.2% respectively. MacKay has a success rate of 64% and is ranked #147 out of 4283 analysts, while Kasimov has a success rate of 32% and is ranked #4187.

Overall, one research analyst has rated the stock with a Sell rating, 3 research analysts have assigned a Hold rating and 3 research analysts have given a Buy rating to the stock. When considering if perhaps the stock is under or overvalued, the average price target is $45.50 which is 23.1% above where the stock opened today.

Clovis Oncology, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company which focuses on acquiring, developing and commercializing cancer treatments in the United States, Europe and other international markets. The company has three product candidates in its clinical development pipeline: Rociletinib, Rucaparib and Lucitani.